1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a technique to obtain the most efficient results when Thermotherapy, Immunotherapy, or Chemotherapy treatments are performed and the media is hot air. Hot air, in order to be highly efficient, requires a high peak of temperature of 130xc2x0 F.xc2x110%, and the air in contact with the skin must have a minimum air velocity of 600 feet per minutexc2x110% for a fast convection. The Flash action in the thermowave has a duration of a fraction of a second. The relaxation cooling period between FLASH peaks is 22 secondsxc2x110%, going gradually from the FLASH peak temperature of 130 F. to 120 F. by mixing with the air in plenum B.xc2x110%.
2. Description of the Related Art
In each Flash pulse the heat is transferred to a layer under the skin and each fine layer acts as a source of heat to transfer to the next layer and that is why it is so important that the Flash peak temperature obtain the conduction from layer to layer for the best penetration to reach the skin sensors and lesion for the transdermal drug delivery of the Chemotherapy treatment, Guibert U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,487 xe2x80x9cCombine Chemo-Thermo Therapy Techniquexe2x80x9d and U.S. Pat. No. 6,328,711 B1 xe2x80x9cChemo-Thermo Applicator for Cancer Treatmentxe2x80x9d. Also of prior art interest are the Guibert U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,447,530 and 5,580,350 xe2x80x9cPeriodic pulsed heat technique for inducing analgesic effectsxe2x80x9d.
The invention improves heat penetration into the tissues of the body without creating damage on the skin or discomfort to the patient when the applicator is applied directly on top of the skin and the media is hot air. For efficiency, high peaks and low power supply are the main objective of this invention by the creation of two well defined plenums on the applicator, according to the description and figures. The way it was solved is by using a DC axial tube fan sandwiched between two separator discs creating well defined positive and negative air plenums. The negative plenum encloses the air among the PCBA discs, the disc is attached to the negative pressure side of the fan and the dome wall. The positive plenum encloses the air among the disc attached to the positive pressure side of the fan, the body skin or plastic film and the dome wall. The negative plenum when the fan is OFF and the heater is ON is the one that accumulates the heat at the maximum allowed temperature, at this time activates the temperature sensor putting OFF the heater and ON the fan. When the fan starts the FLASH action drawing the hot air into the positive plenum almost immediately the peak temperature is transferred for an instant to the skin (one second or less) and the air drawn from the negative plenum circulates back through a narrow passage between the edges of the two discs and the wall allowing a certain time, 10 secondsxc2x110% to equalize the temperatures of the two plenums.
The control box contains a 12 VDC 1.3 AH rechargeable battery with an AC/DC charger which is required together with an ON and OFF recycling relay delay timer and an ON/OFF delay timer for the 20/30 minute treatment. The battery could be replaced by an AC/DC power supply. The control box has an ON/OFF switch and light leds to show the unit functioning.